The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Found...Kitten?

Well, no. It was waiting for me at the back door, and after thirty seconds or so of this...

...It started trundling trustingly towards whichever of my feet was closest. Take a step, and the raccoon kit would revector on the fly.

I moved it, with some protest, and got into the house. Set out some water and cat food and an old cat-carrier that has been "stored" in the back yard for a couple of years, and moved the little critter near them (more complaints.)

It was talking quite a bit last night; I assumed the noise was typical youngsters out of the nest ruckus -- our neighborhood has generally well-behaved raccoons, thanks, I suspect, to the more aggressive ones getting weeded out by feral dogs and annoyed homeowners, but in the summer there is a bit more late-night bustle and chatter. We've had "abandoned" baby raccoons before and they've been reclaimed by Mama within twelve hours. This one's going on 24, and I am suspecting the parent may never return.

There's not a whole lot you can do with a baby raccoon; they carry any number of ailments and parasites that would endanger the cats and it's against the law to adopt 'em. Animal Control doesn't foster or rehabilitate raccoons, they put them down. It is likely that the kindest thing I could do for this animal is to take it out with a clean shot -- but I can't bring myself to do it. I'll give it another day and we'll see what happens.

It is sad when these little guys get stranded and years ago I knew some folks who tried to raise baby raccoon as a pet. They found out that a grown male is, by his nature, a mean aggressive animal that will try to rip your face off and eat it.

Also if you raise a wild animal as a pet, keeping it in a cage, and then release it to the wild it has no idea what to do on its own. I did that with a coyote when I was a kid. When I decided it was not going to become a pet I shot rabbits to feed it every day or so and then set it free out in the country.

That poor animal took off running in circles across a field and I knew then that the right thing would have been for me to put it down and I made a bad mistake trying to make it into a pet in the first place.

It would be nice if B can help you place the kit with a knowledgeable person who knows how to transition a wild animal back to nature.

"I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."